The unmanned and heavily armed Predators or the more deadly Reapers
targeted an AQAP vehicle as it was traveling near the town of Karma in
the Azzan district in Shabwa province, according to The Yemen Post. Five AQAP fighters, but no senior leaders, are said to have been killed in the strike.

The US has carried out four drone strikes in Azzan. The two other strikes took place on March 30 this year, when drones targeted a vehicle and a compound in separate attacks that killed nine AQAP fighters and one civilian.

US strikes in Yemen

The US has carried out at least four airstrikes in Yemen this month; the last strike took place on April 14 in Baydah province. The US launched at least six strikes against AQAP in Yemen in March.
The CIA and the US military's Joint Special Operations Command are
known to have carried out at least 27 air and missile strikes inside
Yemen since December 2009, including today's strike in Azzan. Other
recent airstrikes are believed to have been carried out by the US also,
but little evidence has emerged to directly link the attacks to the US.
[For more information on the US airstrikes in Yemen, see LWJ report, Charting the data for US air strikes in Yemen, 2002 - 2012.]
Since the beginning of May 2011, the US is known to have carried out
21 airstrikes in Yemen. Eleven of those strikes have taken place so far
in 2012. This year, the US appears to be targeting AQAP foot soldiers in
an effort to support Yemeni military operations against the terror
group. AQAP has taken control of vast areas in southern Yemen and has
been expanding operations against the government with raids on military
bases in locations previously thought to be outside the terror group's
control.
Only one of this year's 10 strikes has killed a senior AQAP operative in Yemen. On Jan. 31, US drones killed Abdul Mun'im Salim al Fatahani near
the city of Lawdar in Abyan province. Fatahani was involved in the
October 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole in the port of Aden that
killed 17 US sailors, as well as the bombing that damaged the Limburg
oil tanker in 2002. AQAP said that Fatahani had fought in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The pace of the US airstrikes has increased as AQAP and its political
front, Ansar al Sharia, have taken control of vast areas of southern
Yemen. AQAP controls the cities of Zinjibar, Al Koud, Ja'ar, and Shaqra in Abyan province. The terror group also controls Azzan in Shabwa province. AQAP seized control of Rada'a in Baydah province in January but later withdrew after negotiating a peace agreement with the local government.
US intelligence officials believe that al Qaeda in the Arabian
Peninsula poses a direct threat to the homeland. The terror group has
plotted multiple attacks against targets in the US. A strike in Yemen
last year killed Anwar al Awlaki, the radical, US-born cleric who
plotted attacks against the US, and Samir Khan, another American who
served as a senior AQAP propagandist. Abdul Rahman al Awlaki, Anwar's
son, was killed in a separate strike in the country.